Today, Farm Action sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice urging the departments to investigate and take action to restore competition and lower egg prices.
“We share the Trump administration’s concern about the cost of living crisis and the need to deliver emergency price relief to American families,” the letter reads, explaining that the FTC and DOJ can help deliver that relief through their respective investigative powers.
“While avian flu has been cited as the primary driver of skyrocketing egg prices, its actual impact on production has been minimal. Instead, dominant egg producers—particularly Cal-Maine Foods—have leveraged the crisis to raise prices, amass record profits, and consolidate market power. The slow recovery in flock size, despite historically high prices, further suggests coordinated efforts to restrict supply and sustain inflated prices,” the letter states.
Key Pricing Facts:
- The wholesale price of Grade-A, Large, White, Shell Eggs surged from around $0.50–$1.30 per dozen in 2021 to $6.00–$8.00 per dozen today.
- Cal-Maine Foods, which controls 20% of the egg market, increased its gross profits by 237% between FY21 and FY24. Between FY21 and FY23, their gross profits shot up by 646%.
- Cal-Maine has made more in a single quarter than they made in an entire year prior to the 2022 avian flu outbreak.
Evidence indicates that by not increasing their supply, the five dominant egg firms are forcing prices to stay high while reporting dramatic profit increases and level sales. These same firms are then using their increased profits to acquire their competition, further driving market consolidation instead of investing in replenishing or expanding their flocks. During the 2015 avian flu outbreak, the national flock numbers were recovered within eight months, yet this time around, a recovery has still not been achieved even though it could have been.
Key Production Facts:
- In a month-to-month comparison to 2021, the egg-laying flock was, on average, only 3.82% smaller in each month of 2022, 3.16% smaller in each month of 2023, and 5.18% smaller in each month of 2024.
- Cal-Maine egg production has remained stable at approximately 1.1 billion dozen eggs sold annually from 2021 to 2024.
- Production of eggs in the U.S. has not dipped below per capita consumption of eggs in any year between 2021 and the present.
In addition, another change from the 2015 epidemic is that entry into the market has become significantly harder due to the highly concentrated nature of the breeder supply chain. Today there are just two private European corporations controlling the breeding of an estimated 90% of the world’s egg-layer hens, and Cal-Maine, one of the largest egg producers, controls its own breeder flock. This impedes the ability of new competitors to enter the market and increase supply to help stabilize prices.
Farm Action is calling on the departments to launch immediate investigations into this matter and act swiftly on behalf of consumers and smaller producers. In particular, Farm Action is asking the FTC to use its investigative powers granted under the FTC Act Section 6(b) to obtain more information about the pricing and production practices of dominant egg producers and their hatchery suppliers and to publish its findings publicly.
Farm Action previously called on the FTC during the prior administration to investigate egg prices, but no further action was taken. In a recent letter from FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, Bedoya referenced Farm Action’s previous letter calling for an investigation into the egg industry.
Media Contact: Emma Nicolas, enicolas@farmaction.us, 202-450-0094
